We stayed in a functional hotel down closer to the city, and the hotel shuttle did 2 trips to pick us and our gear up. Their computers were down, must have been using the same system as the airline, and it took a while to get a room. We walked across the street for some grub at the Waffle House, and I had a pepper decaf coffee since the pepper shaker fell into my cup. We went back to the room and watched Cops for almost two hours. I could feel my brain rotting away. I can't even believe half that stuff, made me feel good to be hanging around a group of self motivated cyclists.
We went out for dinner at Michis el Norte. We had two large pitchers of strong Margeurita and plateful's of Mexican goodness. Listened to live music, then headed home. I was feeling dead tired. Called the executive car service Mckee used, but they didn't have anything available. Called a cab company and booked a minivan for the morning.
I got up at 5:45, took a quick shower, and headed down with my luggage. Didn't see a cab, so I called the company. "Oh, we don't have a minivan this morning.". Well what did I reserve last night then? Taxis in Tucson are pathetic. Slow, unreliable and expensive. We should have had a rental all week. The hotel shuttle is parked out front, but no driver. We start calling cabs. I talk to some kids at the adjacent hotel who were just starting up a big Nike cube van to go to work, but they said they slept in already and were probably late. No cabs ever showed up for us despite calling a bunch. Eventually a cab showed up to the hotel next to us, I managed to coax him over for Gerry and Trish to take as their flight was 20 minutes earlier, Devin and I got to stress for a few more minutes. We finally got the Mexican night staff/cleaning lady to call Manuel and ask about the shuttle, which was reaffirmed as a no-go. She finally got to understanding that we really, really needed to get going, and I said we'd pay. Manuel got out of bed and came to the hotel in his own truck to drive us, heater and Spanish music blasting. I bet we paid him 2 days of minimum wages, tax free of course. And I was happy to do so, it's nice to see when someone actually understands what a little initiative can earn, rather than those deadbeat cab companies.
Manuel got us there on time, and lineups were pleasantly small. I'm tired and need some sleep on the next flight, and I've got a weird Idahoan sitting next to me.
We stop in Salt Lake, and head straight over to Quizznos for a sub. Unfortunately the toaster is broken, so it's not as good as a usual Quizzno's sub. After that we get into the Starbucks lineup, and hear "last boarding call, are passengers Bakke and Erfle here?"
We're totally surprised and hustle over, while we were eating we heard calls for Eugene, Oregon, Bakersfield, California
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